Drayson on Asian Le Mans Series pole

The 23-year-old Briton, who is sharing the Lola-Judd LMP1 car with team owner Paul Drayson, set a time of 1m19.143s to take a surprise pole.

With the single session setting the grid for both races this weekend, it was a double success for the team.

"With the nature of the circuit and the big steps we made with the car at Laguna Seca [in the ALMS race there], we knew that we had a good chance this weekend to be quick," said Cocker.

"It's just an unbelievable feeling for me as a driver to get the pole but everybody deserves this so much."

Christophe Tinseu was just a tenth of a second slower in the Sora Racing Pescarolo he is sharing with ex-Formula 1 racer Shinji Nakano, while the works ORECA of Nicolas Lapierre/Loic Duval will start third.

Stefan Mucke could do no better than fourth in the works Lola Aston Martin following a trip into the gravel, while Britain's Oliver Jarvis qualified his Kolles Audi sixth on his maiden weekend in a prototype.

Mathieu Lahaye took pole for the LMP2 class in seventh place overall in the Oak Racing Pescarolo that he is sharing with Jacques Nicolet and Richard Hein.

Lahaye's lap was almost three seconds quicker than nearest rival Jose Ibanez, who was two places further back on the overall grid in his Ibanez Racing Courage.

Aston Martin cars were quickest in both the GT1 and GT2 categories thanks to the efforts of Takeshi Tsuchiya and Tomas Enge.

However, following the end of the session, both cars were found to have rear wings that did not comply with the regulations.

As a result, both were sent to the back of the grid, handing pole in GT1 to the Larbre Saleen of Carlo van Dam/Roland Berville/Stephane Lemeret, and the top spot in GT2 to the Marc Lieb/Wolf Henzler Felbermayr-Proton Porsche.

Pos  Drivers                     Cl    Car                Time
 1.  Drayson/Cocker              LMP1  Lola-Judd          1m19.143s
 2.  Tinseau/Nakano              LMP1  Pescarolo-Judd     1m19.249s
 3.  Lapierre/Duval              LMP1  Courage-ORECA-AIM  1m19.548s
 4.  Mucke/Primat                LMP1  Lola-Aston Martin  1m19.747s
 5.  Cressoni/Noda/Albers        LMP1  Audi               1m20.165s
 6.  Jarvis/Bakkerud             LMP1  Audi               1m20.297s
 7.  Nicolet/Hein/Lahaye         LMP2  Pescarolo-Mazda    1m23.790s
 8.  Wakisaka/Mitsuyama          LMP1  Courage-ORECA-YGK  1m25.847s
 9.  Toulemonde/da Rocha/Ibanez  LMP2  Courage-AER        1m26.647s
10.  Berville/Lemeret/van Dam    GT1   Saleen             1m29.827s
11.  Yogo/Iiri                   GT1   Lamborghini        1m30.679s
12.  Lieb/Henzler                GT2   Porsche            1m30.847s
13.  Yamanishi/Sakamoto          GT1   Lamborghini        1m30.873s
14.  Tanaka/Hiranaka             GT2   Ferrari            1m31.283s
15.  Ried/Holzer                 GT2   Porsche            1m31.515s
16.  Muller/Milner               GT2   BMW                1m31.665s
17.  Aoki/Fujii                  GT2   Ferrari            1m31.733s
18.  Robertson/Robertson/Murry   GT2   Ford               1m31.746s
19.  Farnbacher/Simonsen         GT2   Ferrari            1m31.877s
20.  Kinoshita/Kageyama          GT2   Porsche            1m32.258s
21.  Kojima/Hori/Kimura          GT2   Porsche            1m39.442s
22.  Tsuzuki/Tsuchiya            GT1   Aston Martin
23.  Lee/Ma/Enge                 GT2   Aston Martin